A stunningly shot black and white melodrama, this early Akira Kurosawa (Ran, Throne of Blood) remains a visual and rhythmic masterpiece.
As three men take shelter from the torrential rain in the broken-down gatehouse to the Rashomon temple, so two recount to the third the trial they had witnessed earlier that day. The rape of a bride (Machiko Kyô – Gate of Hell, The Teahouse of the August Moon) and the murder of her samurai husband are recalled from the perspectives of a bandit, the bride herself, the samurai’s ghost and a woodcutter.
With cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa, Kurosawa explores new ways, through deceptive framing and lighting design, to tell the seeming same story from four different perspectives. It’s masterful in its telling -and introduced to a wider, international audience not only his own work, but that of star Toshirô Mifune (Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood) as the bandit, Tajômaru.
Nominated for 2 Oscars – one for best art direction in 1953, won the Oscar for best foreign language film in 1952. Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Rating: 87%
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